TRAGIC Lisa Head had planned to go on a holiday to Australia at the end of her gruelling tour in Afghanistan.

The army captain contacted close friend Andrew Rhodes with her plans only last week – and also told him she had just passed her High Threat Training course which meant she could tackle roadside bombs in Afghanistan.

Lisa, a 29-year-old bomb disposal expert, died in hospital on Tuesday, just one day after being caught in a blast while trying to defuse an improvised explosive device.

She had been on the frontline of the bitter conflict for little over three weeks.

The former University of Huddersfield student died in the Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital in Birmingham after being flown home badly injured from the frontline.

Lisa – who was serving with 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment, the Royal Logistic Corps – had disabled one homemade bomb when the second exploded in an alleyway in Nahr-e-Saraj, Helmand Province on Monday.

Speaking exclusively to the Examiner from his home in San Francisco, California, 29-year-old Andrew said: “When Lisa sent me the email about the High Threat Training she told me it was the highest she could go.’’

And he revealed the moment he discovered that Lisa had been killed.

“I was on a bus and looked at the news headlines on my phone,’’ he said.